Posts Categorized: Kids

Easter will soon be upon us and for my Velcrobrand Blog post this month I’ve created a sweet little bunny outfit complete with shoes and bunny ears (above). If you want to know how to make the costume and decorate the shoes then head over to their blog here. If you want to know how to make the bunny ears then read on!

These bunny ears are made from my favourite material of the moment- grey marl sweatshirt fabric… I love it because its easy to work with, doesn’t fray and give everything that little bit of casual cool. I’ve decorated them with felt flowers – because everything looks better decorated with flowers!

Place two pieces of the marl fabric together right sides facing and then place the pipe cleaner onto the top piece and draw around approximately 1cm from the cleaner. Draw the base of the ear as a wide opening (about 4cm) (you should be drawing on the wrong side of the fabric)

Repeat for a second ear

Machine sew around the ears following your drawn line. Stop and start about 2cm up from the base of the ear. Trim away any excess fabric and notch around the curves.

Turn both ears right side out and press.

Fix the Bondaweb to a piece of the inner ear fabric then cut two ear shapes smaller than the main ears by about 2cm all round.

Iron these in place on the main ears (instead of Bondaweb you could use fabric glue)

Insert one pipe cleaner into each ear.

Bend the ears to give them some character.

Take one ear and wrap the two ends of the pipe cleaner around the headband.

Pull the marl fabric down over the pipe cleaner ends and the headband and use a glue gun to fix in place.

Repeat with the second ear.

Make lots of felt flowers (see instructions below) and then use the glue gun to fix in place around the ears.

TO MAKE THE FLOWERS

To make the primrose:

Cut a 12cm x 3cm rectangle of yellow felt, concertina this into 5 sections and then cut an arch across the top.

Unfold the rectangle and trim to neaten the petal shape if necessary. Cut a 7 x 2cm rectangle from the cream felt, then from this cut a freestyle wobbly shape similar to the one in the photograph. Finally cut two leaf shapes from the green felt.

Roll the cream petals into a tight roll and sew a couple of stitches across the bottom to hold them in place. Take the yellow petals and using a needle and thread sew a medium size running stitch along the straight edge. Pull the two ends of thread to gather the petals up, knot the thread to hold the flower closed

Insert the cream petals into the middle of the yellow ones and fix with a couple of stitches or a blob of glue.

To make the Chrysanthemum:

Cut a 10 x 3cm rectangle of felt, fold in half lengthways and snip into it at 5mm intervals. Make sure you don’t cut all the way through!

Keeping the felt folded in half and starting at one end roll into a tight bud shape. Fix at the outside edge with a small dab of glue or a couple of stitches.

To make the Rose

Cut a felt circle approximately 6cm in diameter. Starting at the outside cut a spiral shape into the circle, you can cut with a straight line, or a wavy one.

Don’t worry about being too perfect as a wobbly line adds to the uniqueness of the final flower. Starting from the outside of the circle again roll the flower up.

Then fix the middle of the spiral to the bottom of the flower with a blob of glue.

Remember if you want to make the shoes and Bunny dress click here for the instructions.

DID YOU KNOW … I am way more prolific on instagram than on here … I’m sorry but how ever hard I try my blog posts are never as frequent as I’d like. For daily craft inspiration, mini projects and basically fun then click hereto see my @sewyeah instagram and follow me. Thank you I love you all! x x x x

I was invited to create a heart inspired project for the super inspiring 31 days of Love series over at redtedart.com – A blog full of creative things to do for kids, with kids and by kids! I came up with this cute heart mobile idea using my favourite craft material – felt!

Download the heart template here, cut out and then pin to a piece of felt folded in two.

Cut out the felt heart. Then repeat with the other felt till you have hearts in five different colours (you will have 10 hearts in total)

On to one half of each heart pair draw eyes using a water soluable pen or tailors chalk. I’ve given each of my hearts a different expression.

Use black embroidery thread and sew the eyes onto each heart.

Use a contrasting colour of embroidery thread and stitch two matching felt hearts together. Blanket stitch works well and so does a more simple running stitch or over stitch. Leave a little opening at the top, fill with a small amount of toy stuffing then stitch closed.

Add some rosy cheeks by dipping the end of a cotton bud slightly dampened into a blusher compact. Dab the cotton bud onto the heart.

Thread a large needle with a longish length of bakers twine, sew through the top of the heart. Tie a bow then trim one end short and leave the other on the needle long to fix to the straw.

Push the needle through the straw (try not to bend it as you go). Decide where you want the heart to hang then tie a double knot in the twine and trim. Make a hanging loop by threading a piece of twine about 50cm long through the straw at both ends. Knot to secure.

Hang and admire.

If you are looking for more crafty felty projects my book Felt Sew Good has over 30 to choose from! Click here for more info.

There’s festivals everywhere at the moment and at each and every one of them stalls are doing a roaring trade selling all sorts of head dresses and hats (I mean when else can you bedeck yourself in pom poms, glitter, feathers flowers and fluff? (obviously when ever you like but festivals seem like their spiritual home))

In case you hadn’t noticed Ros Badger and I are running crafty workshops down at the Port Eliot Festival later this month, but for those of you who won’t be making their way down to Cornwall here’s a little instructional on how to make this super cute neon and gold pleather (how often can you find a reason to wear gold pleather?!) crown. It’s simple to make and if you don’t have gold pleather (why not?) then any stiff fabric or felt or paper will work and if you don’t want to sew, some fabric glue or a stapler will do the trick (quite frankly there’s No Excuse not to make one!)

Easter is really soon although I feel like it’s been and gone as I had my Easter weekend in February. Back then I spent four days working on a big home entertaining and craft shoot for Homes and Gardens magazine for Easter 2015 – Yup that’s how organized they are. Unfortunately it means that not only do I have 14 lovely craft projects that I can’t show you till next year but I also have had my fill of mini eggs, chocolate Shredded Wheat nests and Hot Cross Buns. (Actually I can never have my fill of H.C.B’s.)

Even though I feel Easter is So Over I did dream up this little chappy the other day. He’s a cute way to store your precious mini eggs and other findings from an Easter Egg Hunt and simple to make using a little felt, fabric glue and embroidery thread.

I was too tired to put the computer on last night (and too engrossed in Masterchef) to write up the instructions in the usual fashion so I’ve done a cartoon style step by step instead.

Hullo!

and welcome. I am an all round creative type relishing in a weird patchwork career of author, maker, illustrator and stylist. This blog is a snapshot of the things I like, things I do and things I see. There's lots on here to make and do so please